Institute for Population Health, Divisions of Pre-Medical Education and Admissions presentBuilding Capacity in Healthcare Professions SymposiumFebruary 18 & 19, 2017 | Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar

Cultural Competency and Capacity Building

Maha Elnashar, Director, Center for Cultural Competence in Health Care
Huda Abdelrahim, Senior Specialist, Center for Cultural Competence in Health Care

Background

Capacity building is a conceptual approach to personal or organizational development that concentrates on understanding the hurdles that inhibit people/organizations from reaching their goals while enhancing their abilities to face any new challenges and at the same time achieving sustainable results.1 Cultural Competency training is a form of Capacity Building. It aims to strengthen the skills and abilities of health care providers to function effectively in diversified communities so they can overcome any causes of exclusion and disparities. Understanding the cultural aspect of the patient perspective and background helps health care providers to ameliorate their relations with their patients and develop partnership with the communities they serve and the diversified team they work with.

Published research demonstrates that people with cultural backgrounds outside the mainstream of society generally have less access to health care and worse health care outcomes compared with others in the community. These disparities highlight the need for training in cultural competence in the health care field. 2,3

A systematic review of 64 articles evaluated cultural competence training as an effective strategy to improve the quality of healthcare in minority populations showing a distinguished evidence for improvement in provider knowledge, attitudes and 2 skills and improvement in patient satisfaction.4 Providing cultural competence training to healthcare professionals in Qatar would be of immense value and importance, since Qatar is an extremely high-density multicultural society that aims to provide a world-class health care 5.

Based on the AAMC Tool for Assessing Cultural Competence Training (TACCT)6, and the core competencies delineated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)7, this 3-hour workshop is designed to enhance knowledge, skills and attitudes of professionals working in culturally and linguistically diversified communities. Through various educational activities, participants will explore and discuss cultural topics that have significant impact on healthcare practice and outcome.

Objectives

At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

  1. Value the impact of diversity in healthcare particularly in Qatar.
  2. Define in contemporary terms cultural competence and cultural humility. Differentiate between cultural competence and patient centred care.
  3. Describe how culture influences both patients and provider’s expectations and their understanding of treatment and outcomes.
  4. Recognize the effect of bias and stereotyping on health care quality and describe strategies to reduce their effect.
  5. Explore traditional models of common health systems and identify how traditional beliefs and family dynamics can affect healthcare decisions.
  6. Explain the impact of health/ illness beliefs and different cultural perceptions of illness on health outcomes.
  7. Describe the role of medical interpreters to facilitate communication in the medical encounter.
  8. Value the link between effective communication without biases/stereotypes and quality care.
  9. Promote basic cross communication attitudes (Respect, Curiosity, Empathy).

Structure

  • Each objective is facilitated in 15 minutes.
  • After 90 minutes, participants are offered a 10-minute coffee break.

Teaching tools

  • Didactic PowerPoint presentation
  • Handout includes selected articles for suggested reading
  • Video Clips
  • Group Discussion
  • Role Playing
  • Brainstorming

Learning Assessment

  • Pre-Post questionnaire (10mins.)

References

  1. Oxford Bibliographies: Website: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756797/obo-9780199756797-0051.xml- Accessed Dec.6, 2016
  2. Davis K, Schoenbaum SC, Collins KS, Tenney K, Hughes DL, Audet A-MJ. Room for Improvements: Patients Report on the Quality of Their Own Health. New York, NY: Commonwealth Fund; April 2002 [PDF]. Accessed Dec.6, 2016
  3. Collins KS, Hughes DL, Doty MM, Ives BL, Edwards JN, Tenney K. Diverse Communities, Common Concerns: Assessing Health Care Quality for Minority Americans. New York, NY: Commonwealth Fund; March 2002. [PDF]. Accessed Dec.6, 2016
  4. AHRQ. Website: [PDF]. Accessed Dec.6, 2016
  5. Elnashar M, Abdelrahim H, Fetters MD. Cultural competence springs up in the desert: the story of the center for cultural competence in health care at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Acad Med. 2012;87(6):759–66
  6. Association of American Medical Colleges. Tool for Assessing Cultural Competence Training (TACCT). https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/tacct. Accessed Dec.6, 2016
  7. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Advancing Education in Medical Professionalism [PDF]. Accessed Dec.6, 201
  8. Beach MC et al. Cultural Competence: A systemic review of health care provider educational interventions. Med Care. 2005;43:356-373
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